Midday 1923

Felice Casorati painted "Midday," sometime in the early 20th century, using a muted palette and a soft touch. You can tell that the making of this painting was a slow, deliberate kind of thing. The painting has this wonderfully soft, almost matte surface. He's really working the tones here, building up the light on the figures so slowly. The colours are quite subdued, but there's this tension between the flatness of the space and the roundness of the figures. I keep thinking about the woman on the right. She looks like she's about to get up, but then maybe she's just dreaming. Casorati has built her form up with these tiny strokes, almost like he's sculpting with paint. It reminds me of Balthus, who was also interested in these kinds of quiet, ambiguous scenes. Like a still life, but with people, it leaves you feeling uneasy, but in a good way. The painting invites you to invent your own narrative, to fill in the gaps. That's where the magic happens, right?